bleed the colors of the evening stars
by sweet sweet heartkiller
Summary: marisa.alice / you can go anywhere you wish 'cause i'll be there, wherever you are.


**bleed the colors of the evening stars**  
_there's a citrus constellation in the galaxy._  
touhou project | marisa/alice | wordcount: 660

even though i've never read _his dark materials_, the idea of traveling through worlds via the northern lights just sounds way too fun to not reference. aside from that though, this is embarrassing ( and possibly OOC ) fluff, you guys, i'm so ashamed!!

( characters belong to ZUN, not me. )

――

"Do you know what that is, Alice?" Marisa exclaimed, waving her finger around excitedly before returning to the view in her periscope. The two magicians were perched on Marisa's rooftop, whiling away the hours gazing at Gensokyo's night sky; the dark royal purple that covered the forest tonight was permeated by swirls of padparadscha-orange and hazy pink, sprinkled with glittering yellow stars. Marisa had become excited upon viewing it, and thereafter dragged Alice away from mending doll clothes to experience it with her.

Alice cocked her head to the side, silently contemplating the display in the distance, before shifting Shanghai ( whose dress was _still in need of fixing!_ her creator lamented ) from her shoulder to her lap. "It's pretty, that's all I know ... but I don't know what it's supposed to mean. Is it an omen?"

"No, no!" Marisa reassured her. "I read it in one of Patchy's astronomy studies. It's an aurora, it's a naturally occurring light display that only happens every so often." She peered into the periscope again, trying to get a closer view of the twinkling stars. "Guess the border between Gensokyo and the outer world makes the light come off all different, ze."

"But why did you bring _me_ out here to see it? You could've gone to see Patchouli to talk about it, or Reimu, or ..."

Marisa laid the periscope back down into her lap then, and the look on her face became more introspective. "There's a story that I heard a long time ago when I was younger, ze. I don't remember what happened in the story itself, but I _do_ know that in it, these aurorae were actually portals to other worlds -- the borders between them were thinnest and that if you released enough energy, it was possible that you could pass through to one of them."

Alice's curiosity was piqued, and she turned to face Marisa to listen further. "So, it's kind of similar to Yukari's power, only over even greater distances, maybe?"

"Yeah! And who knows; maybe there are other worlds beyond the one outside of Gensokyo. People there just haven't been brave enough to try and look, I guess ... I know Patchy's said something about it before, but she said 'it's an unattainable goal that can only be realized in fiction and nothing more', or something silly like that. I say, why not take the chance?" She waved her periscope at the lights above, as if she were connecting the stars together on an invisible thread. "If we've got humans and youkai living here that can do all sorts of amazing things, I don't see why we can't just slip from one world to the other like that."

"Do you think _you'd_ be that brave to look, then, Marisa?" Alice asked with a teasing laugh, but the black-white magician merely smirked in response, which earned a confused stare from her. "... hey, wait, why are you looking at me like that."

Before she could protest further, or even blink, Marisa had leaned in close and planted a kiss on Alice's lips; her face suddenly flushed warm and pink before she could let go, eliciting an uncharacteristically cute giggle from the guilty party. "I _could_ be, ze ... but, you know~ it's just not as _fun_ without someone to pass through those worlds with."

Her words sent pleasant shivers rolling through Alice's heart, and all she could do was smile. "... if you promise that we not burn up on re-entry through Gensokyo, then I'd be happy to travel through it with you."

"Hey, it's not like I'm a reckless driver or anything! I'd be careful, I swear ..." Marisa protested between giggling fits, but she was elated enough to steal another kiss from Alice all the same; this time, she returned the favor with equal enthusiasm.

Even if the ethereal lights in the sky weren't a portal anywhere, for now, these two girls could see it as nothing but a sign of something wonderful.


End file.
